Coroner refers nurse's suspected death to DPP

The New South Wales coroner has terminated an inquest into the disappearance and presumed death of a Sydney nurse.

Mary Louise Wallace disappeared in the early hours of September 24, 1983.

Police say the nurse, then aged 33, was last seen at the Alpine Inn Hotel at Crows Nest in Sydney's north.

They say she was seen getting into a car with Robert John Adams who she had met there.

He told police he had driven with her only a short distance, had sex with her and had fallen asleep.

In terminating the inquest, Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon said the evidence is capable of satisfying a jury beyond reasonable doubt that a known person committed an indictable offence relating to the death.